Apple Classifies 2011 Mac Mini as Obsolete

[SharksFan22]

I had one of the original Mac Minis many years ago and thought that while it was just a bit overpriced, it would be the mass market answer to the low-end PC market. I cannot believe that Apple has just let this product idle along for so many years.

Separately, was at an Apple store last night (took the kids in for a coding challenge event) and while all the hype was around iPhones and iPads, they did have one forelorn Mac Pro in the corner of the store and no Mac Minis. Wife thought the Mac Pro looked ridiculous and visually totally out of alignment.

 

[drewyboy]

The 2017 mini should also be on that list.

I get what you're saying but there technically is no 2017 mini model. The model being sold in 2017 is from Oct. 2014 at same price. 3 year old hardware (probably a year older than that since we know they never use the latest anymore) for the same cost as when it first came out. How insane is that.

 

[MacsRuleOthersDrool]

They keep telling they've amazing products in the pipeline for years too. They’re relying on the brand name they worked very hard for in the period 2001 till 2010, since then they’ve been stalling in every category they’re in.

To name one big embarrassment: used google maps lately? Remember flyover from Apple maps and the introduction of another city every two months? Google maps has all the flyovers covered for each city and village of the whole Netherlands. Wanna try it? Use street view and zoom out. That really amazes me and shows how far Apple is falling behind.

This is just one example and it’s software related. Name one example Apple excels in these days...

Mapping is hard. REALLY hard. Google had about a DECADE head-start. Next question?

It doesn't matter what I mention that Apple excels in. You'll just gainsay anything I put forth.

 

[Makosuke]

Yes, the Mini hasn't been updated in a long time. I know.

But this strikes me as interesting for a completely different reason.

In the '90s or even '00s, a 6-year-old computer being classified as "obsolete" was pretty redundant. When the first iMac came out, with its 233MHz G3, the LC2 sporting a 16MHz '030 was that old. When the dual-2GHz G5 tower came out, the the six-year-old top of the line was a PM9600 with either a single 350MHz 604ev or dual 200MHz 604e.

These days, I've got a dual-core Sandy Bridge i5 Mini and a couple of quad-core Sandy Bridge i7 iMacs that are the same age, and they're perfectly serviceable as general-use desktop machines. Not blindingly fast, sure (my phone can compete with the 4-core iMac), but nobody is complaining that they're slow, particularly the higher-end iMacs. Same goes for Windows boxen of course.

Basically, the combination of Intel's performance asymptote and the fact that, frankly, even a low-end computer these days can comfortably do more or less anything the majority of users need has resulted in old desktop computers having a much longer service life than they used to.

 

[drewyboy]

It almost feels like they are just mailing it in on the Mac product line. Then again, the whole PC market segment is pretty boring. What else is left to do. Desktops and laptops seem like dinosaurs.

They are mailing it in. The least they could do is make yearly updates. It's not that hard, they just make it hard (ie MP).

 

[AppleInLVX]

Throw an SSD in there and it should be good as new.

Well, yes and no. I have a 2011 Mac Mini and I use it for a media server/filing solution, and it's brilliant for that. But then, I also recently downloaded a new video game, and I thought maybe I'd try playing on the 65" screen the Mini is hooked up to and it was clear that it really stinks for any 'recent' applications. I upped the memory to 8gig and stuffed an SSD in there a year back, but that graphics card and processor have aged about as gracefully as you'd expect. It really is only good for the most basic computing tasks these days, even with upgrades.

 

[OldSchoolMacGuy]

the late 2012 i7 is the mini king ...

View attachment 740184 View attachment 740185

Yup, I have one. Great machine. Still runs everything perfectly and has no problem being a powerful little workhorse. Was well worth the little extra money for the i7 at the time along with 16GB of RAM and an SSD.

 

[Strelok]

Well, yes and no. I have a 2011 Mac Mini and I use it for a media server/filing solution, and it's brilliant for that. But then, I also recently downloaded a new video game, and I thought maybe I'd try playing on the 65" screen the Mini is hooked up to and it was clear that it really stinks for any 'recent' applications. I upped the memory to 8gig and stuffed an SSD in there a year back, but that graphics card and processor have aged about as gracefully as you'd expect. It really is only good for the most basic computing tasks these days, even with upgrades.

Well for gaming I don't think a Mac Mini or most Mac's are the best choice anyways. If gaming is the main priority, I would look into a mini-ITX build where it's easy to swap out the GPU every few years. For most people an SSD is the single biggest upgrade they can make, unless you are doing more demanding work (games, photoshop etc.)

 

[itguy06]

Mapping is hard. REALLY hard. Google had about a DECADE head-start. Next question?

It doesn't matter what I mention that Apple excels in. You'll just gainsay anything I put forth.

Apple also partnered with TomTom who has been doing mapping for at least as long as Google, if not longer. They also could have partnered with any of the many other companies that have been doing mapping since the mid 90's! Mapping is not hard, it just needs dedication.

Let's go with an area that Apple pioneered - personal assistants. They started the trend, had an awesome assistant (Siri) but now it's far behind the rest. It's not even funny and not until I got into Google Assistant and compared them to Siri on the wife's iPhone that I realized how bad Siri is. They are letting her die on the vine.

 

[Avenged110]

Ha, and I just bought a 2012 quad-core model a few weeks ago. Max RAM and SSD, thing runs great (granted it's running Mavericks, but still.)

 

[HighDesert50]

If Apple is not interested in maintaining its hardware, why not farm it out to Intel as a NUC or another manufacturer who could assure compliance with Mac OS.

 

[mrzz]

And they never will for this, its allllllll onboard the onboard train. While I love my 2016 Macbook Pro 15 I really despise that even the SSD is soldered in. This stuff drives me insane.

The only reason is money. Today's Apple doesn't care about anything else.

 

[michaelz]

mac mini server is the best, still going strong on ebay.

 

[lordofthereef]

Looking forward to a Mac mini that can reliably output 4K video as a replacement to my media center pc I built ages ago. My fear is that it won’t come in anywhere near the price range I’d need it to for the purchase to make sense lol.

 

[Tech198]

At least i upgraded to the 2014 model

 

[entropys]

It’s very hard to take Tim Cook seriously again after those comments. He takes speaking empty rhetoric to levels not seen or heard before. I don’t think he realises how unattractive that kind of language is.

The Mac Mini should’ve been one of the easiest to upgrade. Apple and especially Tim Cook’s Apple simply don’t want a value budget headless Mac.

Yes, rhetoric like that, a kinda lame attempt at the Jedi mind trick, can make you think he regards the great unwashed hordes as no smarter than sheep, but never seems to realise even sheep sometimes notice and find it annoying.

They just don’t believe the Mac mini should belong in their elite product mix.

 

[mdgm]

Now all my Mac Minis are obsolete.

I’m waiting for Apple to release a new model for me to upgrade to. I may even get two of them.

Hopefully they bring back quad-core to the Mini.

 

[Guy Clark]

Another one bites the dust.

The 2011 Mac mini is a solid machine eclipsed only by the 2012 model. It is now six years since Apple have released a decent Mac mini.

Apple have entirely lost touch with the Mac consumer.

One of the finest Macs ever released was the 2011 17" MacBook Pro which continues to fetch a commanding price on the secondhand market.

 

[Cesar Battistini]

Come on Apple, get your act together. Update the Mini, Mac Pro, iMac and displays now!

The iMac was just updated!!!

The rest is coming next year, they already said that!

 

[Guy Clark]

Now all my Mac Minis are obsolete.

I’m waiting for Apple to release a new model for me to upgrade to. I may even get two of them.

Hopefully they bring back quad-core to the Mini.

Now all my Mac Minis are obsolete.

I’m waiting for Apple to release a new model for me to upgrade to. I may even get two of them.

Hopefully they bring back quad-core to the Mini.

Same here both my Macs are obsolete. Early 2008 24" iMac and Late 2009 21.5" iMac.

 

[gwaizai]

Throw an SSD in there and it should be good as new.

Yep. I have the 2012, 250 SSD and 1 T HD. Haven't updated since Yosemite. Runs blazing fast. Still editing videos no problem.

 

[MrUNIMOG]

It will be another three years before the entire line is obsolete. I would hope that an update will occur before then. They're the only server option Apple has, and they do make great media machines.

No, it won't be three years. The current Mac mini (late 2014) is still sold by Apple today, which means that even if they discontinued it right now, it would become obsolete in 5 years from now.

However they'll probably continue selling it until a successor is ready, so the introduction of a new Mac mini will also mark the point from which on the current model will see another 5 years of hardware support.

 

[thisisnotmyname]

Q-Cad, Turbo CAD, Draftsigt. It is extremely fast ( 2d only ). I have a late 2013 iMac as well which has a 750M video card which is a little faster but I'm here to tell you the mini is an incredible machine. FYI I only run Sierra on these.

OK, 2D CAD I could see that being the case. 3D CAD is just so resource intensive I'd think the GPU would double as a space heater. ;-)

 

[9081094]

Mapping is hard. REALLY hard. Google had about a DECADE head-start. Next question?

It doesn't matter what I mention that Apple excels in. You'll just gainsay anything I put forth.

Well Apple was the first using fly-over. Google just put them to shame with it, lol

 

[MrUNIMOG]

So confused ... we have one of these and it got High Sierra - it works just fine - does this mean it won't get the next version of Mac OS next year?

Why do people always confuse the hardware support status and the OS support?

iPhone 4s isn't supported by iOS anymore for over two years now. However you can still get repairs for the 4s, it will go vintage/obsolete in September 2019.

On the other hand the late 2009 iMac has been vintage/obsolete for some years now, which means no official hardware repairs anymore. However, it is still supported by macOS 10.13.x High Sierra and even if support is dropped next year with macOS 10.14, it will continue to get security patches for High Sierra and new Safari versions for another 2 years, that is well into 2020.

So don't worry. Your vintage/obsolete 2011 Mac mini will most probably get the 14th major macOS version next fall, maybe even the one after that, and will certainly get security patches for some more years.
[doublepost=1512421632][/doublepost]

According to Apple if your computer is over 5 years old, It's really sad, it really is.

Good thing Apple doesn't consider Macs "PCs".

5 year old PCs are just very old. 5 year old Macs don't feel old at all.